Preseason Game 7 Recap: Blazers 91, Jazz 97

Damian Lillard struggled in his first trip to Utah as a professional. Credit: Russ Isabella-US PRESSWIRE

Well, the good news is the preseason is over. That means the next time Portland takes the floor the result will actually matter. The bad news? Well, basically the bad news is that after seven preseason games it’s really hard to say where this team is or what should be expected for this season. At least it’s hard for ME to say where this team is are where they’re heading in 2012-13.

Thursday’s game wasn’t on TV in Portland (I didn’t do too much web searching to see if there was a feed online from Utah), and since I didn’t actually watch it I think I’ll turn my recap over to the Internet.

So here is my recap based on Tweets, some from people who were actually at the game, some who weren’t even watching the game.

For me it started like this:

As I said, there were a couple of people actually at the game. They provided the kind of converage Blazer fans are used to.

Things didn’t start super great for the visiting team.

But as the game wore on this looked a little brighter. (I assuming he means Freeland at the end of this Tweet)

Then something major happened, but since very few people were actually watching the game many of the reactions were some variation of this.

But thankfully a professional came to the rescue and sorted everybody out.

It was at least halfway into the game when it became very apparent that many of the best Blazer Tweeters were not paying attention, and having already decided to do a Twitter recap I had to make a decision about what was going to be included. I mean seriously, how can I include the insight of some of the very sharpest basketball minds of the Pacific Northwest if they’re busy tweeting out things such as this.

Some had the decency to at least acknowledge that they’d overlooked Portland’s preseason finale. Case in point:

To make matters worse, Thursday was actually quite a big night for sports. The World Series was on during the Blazer game, as was the Vikings/Buccaneers game. It’s unlikely that a meaningless preseason basketball game played only for the radio would overshadow something major like this. (Here‘s the reference point for those who need it).

But back to the game.

Thursday was a perfect night for media members to do that thing where they tweet out information everybody already knows because they too are watching the game. Here are a couple of great examples from the closing of evening.

In the end, the Jazz had too much going on inside for Portland to stop. The Blazers turned the ball over too many times down the stretch, and every time they got close at the end Utah found a way to keep the game just out of reach.

If there is one major takeaway from Thursday’s game, it’s probably this:

Which leads to important statements/insights such as this:

And leads some people to say things like this:

So there you have it. Portland’s preseason is over. At some point early next week the roster will be solidified. And the next time the Blazers take the floor the games will actually count. Since from here on out every game will be televised one way or the other, you can bet this will be my final time creating a fully Tweet-sourced recap.

I’m working on a season preview that will go up sometime between today and next Wednesday when Portland hosts the Los Angeles Lakers. In the meantime, if you are looking for a very lengthy and well written season preview tome why not check out the one brought to you by the fine gentleman over at Hardwood Paroxysm. I’m sure I’m not the first person to tell you about that site. Hopefully I also will not be the last. One of their many talented writers used to write for this very blog. How about that.

Box Score

@mikeacker | @ripcityproject | mike.acker1@gmail.com

Enes Kanter dominated Portland on both offense and defense in Salt Lake City Thursday night. Credit: Russ Isabella-US PRESSWIRE